Good evening, everyone. I want to respond this evening to develop some of the things that Joe Goluski, our speaker yesterday morning, spoke about. Aside from being a Zen priest and co-leader of our affiliate Sangha in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Joe is a climate scientist and was talking about some aspects of climate. I want to also refer to some of the things I talked about Last Monday a couple of you were here. So there are many things to say. I spoke about Pope Francis and last Monday I want to say some more about what he's been saying. But I wanted to mainly focus on what Joe said yesterday about, well, about time. Joe's a geologist and was talking about geological time. And I also wanted to kind of focus on what he was saying about hope, which is a kind of funny word.

[01:09]

So, Joe was talking about his work being up in the Peruvian Andes at the edge of a large ancient glacier and watching it melt and his reflections on that climate change and what's happening in terms of that. But he put it in an interesting context in terms of geological time. And it's more than geological time, it's kind of human karmic time. And I think in terms of our practice, it's personal geological time and communal karmic time. So, Joe said that Well, the human beings have been around for about 200,000 years. Human beings basically the same as us. But the climate, and I didn't realize this fully, has shifted.

[02:13]

Most of that time was shifted. And it's only about 8,000 years ago that climate became fairly stable. And only because of that were humans able to develop cities and agriculture what we, what passes for civilization, we would call that. And so we have 8,000 years of that, and now we have this, well, he talked about this being geologically the Anthropocene age, that we are, as human beings, are having a large impact on climate, and there's just some, There's lots of facts about that. I talked about some of them last Monday, but that this year is the hottest year in recorded history, that July was the hottest month in recorded history. And the rainfall a week ago in South Carolina that was called by the governor a once-in-a-thousand-year rainfall.

[03:22]

So that kind of, and what's happening in California and many places around the world, drought, rainfall, forest fires as a result of drought, what's going to be happening in terms of, well, we already have climate refugees, and that's a big problem in Asia. I mean, in Europe, coming from the Mideast and Africa. Anyway, we're living in this geologically very tumultuous time. And I think this has to do with our practice, you know, when we sit upright and present, we focus on this present experience. We pay attention and, you know, our practice is to sit upright in the middle of whatever's going on and pay attention to thoughts and feelings and sensations, not to try and figure them out or do anything with them, but just to be present and our

[04:23]

thinking process continues to chatter along, we observe, sometimes there's spaces, and when we can sit present and upright and find some calm in the middle of that, we can connect with being fully present. Some Dogon translators call it presencing, to bring our attention to this present experience But this present experience is not separate from geological time, too. So personal geological time, that all of the experiences, causes and conditions, and reactivity, and loss, and sadness, and joy, and confusion, and regret, and all of that stuff is part of what's here, present in our, and comes up in our thoughts and feelings as we sit Taking the next breath, enjoying, inhale, enjoying, exhale.

[05:32]

So being present, our practice of presencing, has to do with a wide view of time. Actually, Dogen talks about this a lot. In terms of being time, the time is not some kind of abstract, external set container, but is the flowing of our own experience and activity and awareness. and all of that together, because we kind of create the world together. So, particularly in our practice and teaching tradition, we have access to a really wide sense of time. It's one of the gifts of this tradition and of this practice, actually. We refer to teachings from Shakyamuni Buddha, who lived historically 2,500 years ago, more or less.

[06:35]

And I mentioned Dogon, who lived in the 1200s. And we chanted the Precious Mara Samadhi, traditionally considered to have been composed by Dongshan in the 800s. and studied for many centuries, a thousand years since then. And we have this sense of this practice, and this is particularly true of Zen, I think, in other Asian spiritual traditions. I'll speak of Asian religion next week. Brian will talk about the connection between Asian religion and Christian, Western traditions. Zen, particularly, is kind of, I think of as Confucian Buddhism. There's an emphasis on ancestors and lineage and history.

[07:36]

Indian and, I think, Tibetan Buddhism, much less so. I guess there are lineages, of course, in Tibetan Buddhism, but it's not as focused on. Maybe Rachel can correct me about that. We'll have some time for discussion. At any rate. we have this sense of a tradition that goes way back, and hopefully way forward. People come to meditation practice looking for some settledness, some calm, some peace of mind, to be present. But we realize part of what the practice does for us, just sitting upright and facing ourselves and all the thoughts and confusion and habit patterns and so forth, we start to realize that this interconnectedness that Pope Francis talked about.

[08:46]

So one of the remarkable things about his encyclical, I haven't read it all, but parts of it, that he talks a lot about interconnectedness, and dependent co-arising. I don't know if he uses that phrase exactly, but that's what he's talking about. And he talks about integral ecology, this sense of our responsibility for everything, that when we sit, we're not just sitting. I think in our culture, meditation is one of those self-help techniques for a lot of people. And mindfulness meditation can be that, can be something more. But we see that we are connected. We're interconnected, as Pope Francis says, with everything in the world, and all the other beings, and all the beings who are going extinct. And as Joe was saying yesterday, everything changes. And all the different, many species that have inhabited this planet, most have gone extinct.

[09:52]

we will eventually, too, as human beings. But we're connected with all different beings around us. You know, what happens in the glaciers, in the Andes, and in the Himalayas affects people around the world. And, you know, some countries want to build walls to keep other people out. But we can't really do that. We're connected. And so we start to realize, and that's kind of on a global level, but also we realize that our, whatever it is that's sitting on your Kushner chair right now is a product of many, many beings, friends, family, loved ones, teachers, siblings, many beings, pet, childhood pets, all are part of what's happening on your seat right now. So our practice is not just for ourselves.

[10:56]

That's the point I was getting to. That we practice as part of this web of connectedness in space and in time. So we're connected with, as I sometimes say, the people walking by in front of Urban Park Road in 100 years or 250 years or whatever. whether or not it will be called very proper or not. Okay, so we sit in the middle of all this, and we're present in the middle of all this. And what's happening in the planet affects us, and what's happening in our society affects us. In terms of human karma, you know, the climate damages, connected to all the problems of our society, and today is Native American Day. The apologies to any of you who are Italian-American.

[12:01]

It used to be called Columbus Day. But anyway, and of course, starting with Columbus, the native peoples of this continent were almost exterminated, fortunately not quite. And then our economy was built on slavery and racism. All of that karma of greed, hate, delusion, which we all have a piece of, is part of what has led to our current situation where the climate is being damaged and You know, we have government and media and economy, you know, of, by and for the billionaires and corporations rule. It's just the way things are now. So, you know, one of the things that Joe is talking about and I want to talk about and have talked about is

[13:05]

that we can look at all this and feel some great despair. And I don't think that's realistic. I think there's plenty of reason for hope. Because there's change. Everything is changing. And we can see it over, you know, the world that the Buddha lived in in India was incredibly different from He didn't have electric lights. He didn't have air conditioning. He just sat in the heat or the cold. Well, mostly it was heat. But anyway, things change. And, you know, what Joe said yesterday is really important, that the way things change, we don't understand and we don't know, But it seems to me, historically and even geologically, that things change suddenly after a long time of causes and conditions that lead up to it.

[14:12]

So he gave the example of, some of you may remember, Soviet Union breaking up, Berlin Wall falling, apartheid ending. There are more recent examples. Gay marriage is now legal, which I think was unthinkable five years ago. Anyway, even the Supreme Court. Things change, and they change suddenly. And so Joe referred, and I referred to last week, to this book and now movie by Naomi Klein. This changes everything. So I'll keep this for the announcements, but I won't. There's a few flyers up front. Next Tuesday, which will be tomorrow evening at 7.30 at the Music Box Theater on Southport, there's a showing of this new film. It's changed everything based on Anne Klein's book.

[15:12]

She will be there for question and answer. So there's information about that up front. Her book is called This Changes Everything, Capitalism Versus the Climate. And her analysis, which is quite similar in a lot of ways to Pope Francis's way of talking about it. Pope Francis invoked the great Chicago and Dorothy Day, founded the Catholic Workers, and he invoked Thomas Merton. And in December, we're going to have Charles Stray from DePaul here talking about comparing, talking about the prophet of the bodhisattva, comparing Thich Nhat Hanh and Dan Berrigan. So there's a tradition in the Catholic Church, and in many spiritual traditions, that's quite concerned about inequality and the poor and taking care of people. And this is our practice, too. We chant for benefiting all beings.

[16:13]

Beings are numberless. We've got freedom. We realize that we actually are connected, that we can't build walls to keep so-called other people out forever. There is hope, you know, just in the fact of Pope Francis and him, the head of this huge, very conservative religious institution, taking this, you know, I don't know, he's, I don't know that I would agree with everything that he says or represents, but certainly this is a, He's being very active and bold about encouraging the bishops in America, for example, to speak about climate and about inequality and poverty and against the death penalty.

[17:18]

Anyway, this is not insignificant as an effect on our world. There are other causes for hope. Naomi Klein's perspective is really interesting. She talks about the way, her last book was about disaster capitalism, and the way that capitalism has been transformed in our society. I don't know what perfect capitalism would be like, but anyway, we have this control of government by the corporations, for the corporations, and so forth. which neglects the well-being of the masses of people. But she says, but Naomi Klein talks about how this climate crisis is an opportunity. So in our personal lives, it happens that we have some crisis. I think many people have come to practice, for example, after

[18:24]

the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a relationship, or a job, or some unfortunate change. Part of our practice, a huge part of our practice, is just being able to be present and upright amid sadness, amid unfortunate change. But out of that, sometimes, in our personal lives, something positive and wonderful can happen. We can shift our habits. We can shift how we see things. Transformation happens individually, collectively, geologically. And so Van der Klein says this changes everything, that in order for human beings to face climate, and Joe was talking with me yesterday about how, you know, the idea that it's hopeless and that, you know, this feeling of gloom and doom is not realistic, scientifically, geologically, we don't know how things will change.

[19:30]

And so for human beings, this climate crisis is a huge opportunity for transformation. I think that's a really helpful, wonderful, useful, and realistic way of seeing things. And of course, it's very available to feel sad and hopeless, and it is. And those two aren't the same thing. You can feel sad and use that energy to help create change. So this is a time of opportunity for human beings, and I think our practice is part of just being here and doing Zazen, is part of a response to climate damage. Of course, much more is needed. But just changing our physical way of thinking, this physical yogic practice of facing the First Noble Truth, facing sadness, facing loss, facing misalignment, facing suffering, if you will, then we can do that and remain upright.

[20:49]

It's tremendously powerful. It represents tremendous hope. a new way of seeing life. And when more people do this, and I'm not talking just about Zen meditation, but are willing in whatever mode or tradition they find themselves, facing the reality of our own lives and of the life of the world around us, when people can do that and be responsive and aware, and not try and run away from themselves or the situation, but actually just stay, remain seated, remain present, remain upright. It's tremendously powerful. This is part of the change that we need. So Pope Francis, though, has asked for something more. He has been encouraging people of faith, particularly, to take action now, to respond.

[22:00]

I want to read again, as I did last week, some of what Pope Francis says. He talks about the climate as a common good. The present ecological crisis is one small sign of the ethical, cultural, and spiritual crisis of modernity. Everything is related and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage woven together by the love God, I could say Buddha or Buddha nature, but whatever, has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river, and mother earth. He says the earth is essentially a shared inheritance whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone. And he talks about specific things like access to safe drinking, drinkable water as a basic universal human right, which many poor people don't have now. So he encourages recognizing the specific context and reasons for pollution and the workings of society and the economy and our behavior and how reality is being transformed.

[23:17]

He says the two separate crises, environmental and social, are not separate, but rather one complex crisis, both social and environmental, that we needed an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature. So that's another way that Zazen is related to this. I think one aspect of Zazen anyway is to find our inner dignity, each of us, each in our own way. Again, to be able to be present and still and upright to the best of our ability in the middle of the sadness and pain of our world and our lives. Not to ignore the joys and hopefulness of our lives, even. I've been thinking of Rumi's, the great Sufi poet Rumi, saying, the cure for pain is in the pain. we have to face a situation.

[24:21]

But when we do that, there's a tremendous dignity, is one word, that we can find. An inner creative spirit, a spirit of possibilities. So Pope John talks about how we need to change and develop new convictions, attitudes, and forms of life, including new lifestyles. This is not just individual conversion, but also community networks to solve complex situations facing our world today. And there are, again, there are numbers of hopeful things happening. The fact that Shell Oil withdrew from drilling in the Arctic, even after President Obama had given them permission, they just realized that it wasn't feasible. It would have been terrible if that had gone forward. And, you know, just that it's become, that we know now that ExxonMobil knew in the 70s and did research that they knew about climate change and how damaging it would be back then and decided to, instead of talking and furthering up their research, they decided to put millions of dollars into denial and, you know, like the tobacco companies knew about cancer.

[25:42]

from cigarettes. So Naomi Klein talks about how do we say yes to change, to a positive change. And again, the Pope encourages people of faith, that means us in some way, to action. And some of us have been talking about how to do that as Sangha. And actually, again, we already are doing that, because many people in our Sangha are doing it. Living lives in which they're being helpful in the context, whatever context they're in. Working in corporations, or doing social work, or therapy, or creative work. Zazen supports that. But there are things we can do, so we're going to be having the first of a series of outreach events at the Lakeview Pantry this month.

[26:46]

It's already filled up, but we're going to be having more of those, just helping people who are feeding the hungry. And we're open to anybody who has suggestions of things that we can do as Sangha, but also each of us together. Bodhisattva practice, I've been giving this quote from Dogen, the family style of all Buddhas and ancestors, is first to arouse the vow to save all living beings by removing suffering and providing joy. So like Pope Francis, who took the name Francis, the great saint of the natural world of animals and plants, all beings, say this for announcements, but it's part of what I'm talking about.

[27:51]

So I mentioned this film with Naomi Klein a week from tomorrow at the Music Box, and she'll be there. But there's an event this Wednesday evening. I'm going to go, and if anybody wants to come join me, you're welcome to. It's a climate justice vigil and march sponsored by 350.org, and there are going to be these kinds of vigils and marches all around the country. But the one in Chicago will start at 5 o'clock this Wednesday at the old St. Pat's Church, 700 West Adams Street. So we can face this, and change does happen, and hopelessness And we have to feel the sadness, but we don't know how change will happen.

[28:53]

But we know that it will happen. So what's happening now in our society, the climate, and our economy, and some of the ridiculous things happening in our political system, they will change. They're not sustainable. And part of our practice tradition is to have a wide view. And also, like Dr. King said, that the arc of history, if I get the quote right, but I'll get it close, the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice. So this is not something, this is not dependent on our political elected leaders. This is something that the people, by each of us, talking about this, being willing to face this, enjoying our practice and our creativity and our communality, that we can help make change.

[30:01]

So I've been babbling enough. I'll listen to, welcome any comments, questions, responses. Yes, Brian. I've been thinking about, wondering how zazen actually contributes to perhaps a healthier relationship with the environment. And one of the things that's come to mind is about simply cultivating a capacity for awareness. Albuquerque when I lived there, and it was a 15-year drought going on there.

[31:03]

And it was a terrible situation. They kept building more and more housing developments. And I go to this gym, and in the bathroom, in the men's room, guys would be shaving as the water's running full blast, talking for 10 minutes, as someone else says. They're slowly shaving. judge me all about that. Sometimes I feel my own anger about that rising up, but it brings to mind that there are many ways in which simple self-awareness, which includes awareness of one's immediate environment, helps with things like just simple little things like not wasting water, not littering, and recycling more, and paying attention to how much you drive and all kinds of lifestyle issues, which are not going to solve the climate problem, but it's important to start here.

[32:04]

And I think self-awareness is a problem for some people who don't want to think about that. It's not necessarily because they degree and doing those practices helps us and helps those around us to be more aware and that's definitely a part of the solution but you know I just have to add that the situation in terms of the climate we need we do as I was saying last Monday we do need to change our energy system and here we are using you know fossil fuels for you know we're all part of the problem it's not that there's some perfect purity or But the fossil fuels need to stay in the ground. The whole aggregate of them, we need to change. We actually have the technology, solar and others. It's the popular political, political doesn't mean just politicians, the political will to do what's necessary to change.

[33:15]

There are potentially more jobs available through conversion So we're developing that, for example. So we have to look at that level, too. And that's the level that actually Pope Francis is asking us to look at and that 350.org is talking about, in terms of enough people doing both, looking at being more self-aware about driving and water use and so forth, and also looking at what's happening in society. And we each have our own way of responding. So it's not about being self-righteous about some particular tactic. But yeah. But I guess if I could follow up, what I was trying to get to was that those sorts of personal practices that can come out of self-awareness, I think, are at the foundation of them doing some of these bigger actions that you talked about. we start doing things individually, then we're more likely to be engaged in something on a bigger scale.

[34:24]

I agree. Thank you. Other comments? Hi there. I have two, and one, I think, is a good part of, and it's a question, is a part of our practice is to be impressed, in a sense. No matter what the situation. To be present. No matter what the situation. Right. Have that sense of connectedness and calm regardless of what's going on. And I think that, you know, like we just heard something on the radio today. We don't know if we're going to be on a planet for 200,000 years, but we don't know if we'll be on a planet 5,000 or 50,000 years from now. Right. We as a species, man. Well, this is much, much better than that possibly. Possibly. But not necessarily. Not necessarily.

[35:25]

The thing is, just be present regardless of what's going on, and be connected. But I think that as long as it, from my point of view, is that it's not helpful, is that we're still disconnected, then a lot of these things could happen. But it's also what I heard you talk about, struck by, a conservative and trying to hold on to what you have, rather than embracing change. And I just see everybody, it's like we're all trying to hang on to our lifestyles, to what we think is good. That's a really key point. What is our relationship to change? Our whole body is changing all the time, you know, relationship with death, you know, and so forth. Change is happening.

[36:28]

And I think you're right that there's a kind of... it's a biological... impulse to just hold on, the kind of inertia that we want. Change is difficult. Some change is really good, some change is really bad, you know. But, good and bad, you know, from our perspective. But how can we, part of Zazen is settling and calming. Part of it is that we develop a kind of sense of spaciousness and flexibility and openness. The more we are able to face our own patterns of reactivity, our own tendencies to hold on, and so forth. The more we can actually be upright and present with that, the more we are available to shift and to work with change and to help, you know, try and make the changes more helpful and less harmful. Part of Zazen is that we develop a kind of resilience.

[37:30]

So, you know, I believe that people in the Sangha individually and hopefully collectively, if there was some climate or other kind of emergency in Chicago, our practice would help us, make us more helpful. We'd be a little more settled, a little more open to, you know, I mean, you know, there's all the stories about what people did in Katrina and Hurricane Sandy and all that, you know, how to be helpful. And just having the regular practice of just stopping, and sitting down, and being present and upright, and just paying attention to all the stuff that's going on in our own seat, gives us a kind of resilience, a kind of steadiness, a kind of capacity to be more flexible, and more responsive, and more helpful. It doesn't mean being perfect. We're not necessarily going to always, you know,

[38:33]

Who knows what would happen if a tsunami came down the road from Lake Michigan or whatever. We don't know what we would do, but we have a little more capacity to be flexible. Yeah, did you have something else? Yeah, that's a huge issue. How do we, our zazen is about sitting still and looking like we're not changing, like we're not moving. This instruction is to sit still, don't move, be present. But of course, as Precious Mother Samadhi says, even though we're sitting still, about cowering rats, you know, inside, outside still and inside trembling like tethered colts are cowering rats.

[39:44]

So, you know, how do we face the inner shakiness of, you know, you walk into a room full of people who've been sitting for half a day and everybody's sitting still. So this is about how to be alive. Rachel. With respect to change, when you're sitting there, it's a concession, and you're just trying to be present there. Or even when you come out of concession, or what you're doing in life, you're trying to be present. I think the bigger challenge for me is how to be motivated to, still look like seaweed in the sea. And they're like, how do you really go for something like, okay, I want effect change, I want to stop global climate change, and I have these great ideas, and I want to study that in that way.

[40:45]

But how do you balance that kind of drive and determination with getting things done and still being present, you know? I mean, that for me is really the, how do you do that? Yeah, well, that's the question. How do we do that? So the question of skillful means is one of the bodhisattva practices. But so is vow or commitment. We take on, OK, I'm going to do what I can to put my body out there to show up on the streets when my schedule allows and represent for stopping climate damage. I see. So, yeah, Zen doesn't mean just being, this is not about being a Zen zombie.

[41:48]

It's like, okay, when it's time to get up and act, we do that. But having this practice, this regular practice of being of settling and slowing down a little and just paying attention to what's actually happening in this body and mind, not our stories about it, but actually facing this presence. It gives us a capacity to try things, to go out and, you know, so come Wednesday evening and do this vigil with me if you want. Bring your finger marker and poster board so I can make a sign. carry signs, or not. I'll wear my rucksack, anyway. Is that meant to be a... I mean, it's being hosted at St. Pat's, and you're going to be kind of encouraged by religious leaders, or is it just a general... This is 350.org, Bill McKibben's organization.

[42:49]

Joe was talking yesterday about how that's actually, in some ways, discouraging, because we're never going to get back to 350 parts per million. And Bill McKibben and James Hansen and other climate activists will say, well, the game's over after that. But actually, we don't know that. The point is, so that's just a technical point, really. But they're the biggest organization that's been really getting people activated around the world to respond. And this is part of you know, what supports Pope Francis to speak out the way he has, and, you know, and Shell decided to withdraw from drilling in the Arctic, partly because there were people out there who were, you know, calling attention to it and talking about it. And so, again, we don't know how change happens, we just know it does. And our efforts could be part of that, and including the things Brian was talking about.

[43:53]

if you want to go out and do something more active in terms of climate or in something else related. It's all related. That's the Buddhist truth, and that's what Pope Francis is talking about. Inequality and poverty and injustice in our society, gun violence, all of it's related to the way our society is organized right now. So any piece of it that calls you to respond, go for it. And let us know about it and some other people may come along with you.

[44:30]

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